Politics & Government
Plan for Rail Along Route 23 Corridor Eyed
New service could relieve traffic on feeder road to Route 287 and 80.
The Morris County Freeholders Wednesday called for a study to restore commuter rail service along the Route 23 corridor in Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties.
Freeholder Gene Feyl—first vice-president of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, which oversees transportation planning in a 13-county region of New Jersey, including the three counties seeking this study—said the authority would be asked to pay for the study.
He said the study would examine possibilities for adding rail transit service along the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad line that parallels Route 23 from Bergen to Sussex counties in New Jersey.
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“We need to see if there is a qualified need for transit,” he said.
If developed, the transit service could offer residents of Butler, Kinnelon, Bloomingdale, Pequannock, Riverdale, Sparta and Vernon, and others, an alternative means of commuting to work.
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The NJTPA has included the possibility of a transit study for that region in its “Plan 2035” long-range transportation planning study.
A citizen group calling for the restoration of transit along the corridor has posted a Facebook page seeking support for new rail transit service from North Bergen to Vernon and Sparta.
NJ Transit is developing plans for improved rail service on a new NYS&W rail line east of Route 80.
The state agency in 2009 reached an agreement to construct and operate the Passaic-Bergen line using the NYS&W Main Line right-of-way between Hawthorne and Hackensack to serve nine new stations.
New transit service could relieve heavy automotive congestion along Route 23, which is a main commuter road connecting with Routes 287 and 80.
Morris County traffic counts done in 2009 along Route 23 showed, for example, in Butler, Boonton Avenue, north of Route 23, carried 5,581 vehicles a day, and south of Route 23 carried 8,344 vehicles.
Kiel Avenue, east of Route 23, carried 11,325 vehicles a day, the traffic studies said.
The NJTPA long-range study projects that by 2035, population in the Route 23 corridor could see a steady increase.
